Indomitable X-Men: Band of Brothers
by Paradox Predator
Summary: The Indomitable X-Men have gathered, but they have yet to be tested. Now, new foes rise up to do battle- Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists. (Second in the Indomitable series)
1. Chapter 1

AN: New people, you might want to read 'Indomitable X-Men: To Me, My X-Men!' first. Everyone else, sorry this is so late. I haven't had much time to write over the past few months. Well, enjoy.

…

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter One

…

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" a voice echoed through the streets of the small village of Winzeldorf in Eastern Germany. "Step right up to see the fabulous Wanda and Pietro Maximoff! Anything you can do, they can do better! Feats of speed and improbable acts! Hurry, before all of the tickets are gone!"

The voice belonged, of course, to Pietro Maximoff himself. He and his sister Wanda had been on a tour through all of Eastern Europe. Winzeldorf was their third to last stop before they were finished. After that? Pietro shrugged and ran a hand through his shock-white hair, brushing his two long forelocks out of his eyes. After that they didn't know what they were doing. Still, they had time to figure it out.

Pietro ran around back of the hastily-built stage in the town square to where Wanda was busy brushing her long, dark brown hair. "Big crowd out there tonight," he said, switching from German to Romani, his first language.

"A big crowd?" asked Wanda sarcastically in the same language. "Please. This town wouldn't recognize a big crowd if it had enough people to make one."

"You chose it for the tour," said Pietro. "In fact, you were pretty adamant about coming here. Why is that?"

"I don't know," Wanda said thoughtfully as she put down the brush and pulled her red jacket on. "It was just a compulsion. Like we're supposed to be here."

Pietro shrugged. Sometimes his sister had flashes of intuition along with her other talents. It was just part of the hand life had dealt them. Her compulsions had never steered them wrong before.

"Right," he said, smiling. "Let's go out there and wow them!"

…

"'It was just a compulsion'!" Pietro said mockingly, slumping against the wall and holding his injured leg. "'Like we're supposed to be here'! Why do I _ever_ listen to you?"

"You're the one who introduced me as 'the Scarlet Witch' to a bunch of superstitious, backwater peasants!" Wanda shot back, nursing the lump on her head. "Now we're stuck here in this stupid bell-tower. Nice going, 'Quicksilver'."

"Do you smell sulfur?" Pietro said, getting distracted. "I think I smell sulfur. Do you smell sulfur?"

"Pietro, you're getting off subject," Wanda complained. She stopped, sniffed the air, and cocked her head to the side. "Now that you mention it, I _do_ smell sulfur. That's odd."

"I know that you've had a hard day," said a voice from further up the tower, making the Maximoffs jump, "but could you please discuss something besides how bad I smell? I can't help it."

"Who is it? Who's there?" Pietro said, attempting to jump to his feet. He landed on his injured leg and slumped back down with a groan. "Remind me not to do that again," he said to Wanda.

"Don't do that again," she told him absently, as she peered up into the dust motes sifting through beams of light in the rafters. "Who are you?" she called. "Come down here! Show yourself!"

"I am not going to show myself," the voice said from a deep shadow beside Wanda. "You will be frightened if I do."

"It takes more than parlor tricks to frighten me," she said, backing away from the shadow. Try as she might, she could see nothing in it, but the smell of sulfur had grown stronger. "Come out of the shadows."

"If you are certain…" said the voice.

"I am," Wanda confirmed.

"As you wish."

A two-toed foot, covered in fine, blue hair was placed in the circle of light in the center of the tower floor. It was followed by a three-fingered hand, a yellow-eyed face with a mouthful of short fangs, and a slightly hunched body. Wanda drew in a breath as the creature's spaded tail flicked into view.

"You're not frightening," she said gently, trying not to scare him off. "You're amazing."

"Don't flirt with the dungeon-monster, Wanda," Pietro groaned, still nursing his leg.

"I'm not flirting, idiot!" she shot back. "Besides, he's not a monster." She reached out a hand to the creature before her, and he shrank away, clutching the rags of what looked like a circus performer's costume closer about himself. "Who are you?" Wanda asked.

"My name is Kurt Wagner," he said, then he smiled sadly, "but in the circus, I was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler!" His smile faded. "But, then I ended up here. They're going to burn me at the stake in a few days."

Wanda shook her head. "Savages!" she said indignantly. "They should be destroyed!"

"No," said Kurt, taking one of her hands in his own. "We must pray for them."

Pietro scoffed. "A lot of good that'll do when there are flames licking at our feet," he said morbidly.

"Not that contemplating our imminent demise isn't fun," said Kurt, glaring at Pietro, "but there are three of us now. Maybe we should think of how to escape, yes? I can teleport along lines of sight. Can the two of you do anything of the sort?"

"I can manipulate probabilities and cause electrical systems to go haywire," said Wanda. "My brother has enhanced speed, reflexes, and durability."

"I don't speak science. Could you repeat that again in Romani?" Kurt deadpanned.

"I'm fast and she's weird," translated Pietro.

"Hey!"

"My leg's injured though," Pietro said. "I rolled my ankle, and then one of those jerks hit me in the knee with something. Otherwise, Wanda and I would be long gone."

The tower door opened and a man stepped inside, holding a rifle. He shifted nervously from his right foot to his left before lifting the gun and pointing it at the three mutants. "You are to come outside immediately," he said in German. "It's time for you monsters to die."

"I thought you said we weren't due for execution for a few days," Pietro complained, still in Romani.

"They must have moved it up because of you," Kurt said. "No one wants three monsters in their church-tower around Christmas."

"Stop speaking in that vile language!" the man spat. "Come outside immediately. You," he gestured to Wanda with his rifle, "witch, help your sorcerer brother if he cannot walk."

"This is barbaric," Wanda muttered, helping Pietro stand. "I can't believe that there are still people who hold witch-burnings!"

The three mutants were forced from the tower at gunpoint. Wood was piled on the stage where the Maximoffs had been performing only the day before. Nearby, a nervous-looking Lutheran minister stood, clutching a large Bible.

"Father, forgive them," Kurt quoted in German as he was led onto the stage. "They know not what they do."

"Don't you dare quote scripture, demon!" their executioner hissed, striking Kurt in the jaw. Kurt reeled from the blow, but quickly got back up.

"If your enemy strikes you on one cheek," he quoted, "offer him the other as well."

The man reared back to hit him again, but was stopped by the minister. "That's enough, Herr Zimmerman!" the minister said. "If we must do this, then let's do it quickly."

"Why?" Zimmerman asked. "Don't you have the stomach for it, Reverend?"

The Reverend lowered his eyes to avoid meeting Zimmerman's gaze. "Perhaps I don't," he murmured under his breath.

 _"I think that you had best listen to the Reverend, Herr Zimmerman,"_ said a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. _"He seems to be the only one of you with any sense."_ Zimmerman's rifle pulled itself from his grip and whirled around to point at him.

"Witchcraft!" he shouted, falling down and scuttling backwards. "Stop this immediately!"

 _"Oh, it's not him."_ A man floated into view over the church tower. He was dressed in red and purple, with a matching helmet, and a cape clasped with a brooch displaying a symbol of a six-fingered hand. "It's me, Herr Zimmerman."

"Who-who are you?" Zimmerman stammered.

"I am known by many names," the man said, "but you can call me…" his lips quirked up in a small smile, "…Magneto."

…

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry. This was supposed to be out on Sunday, but I've been busy. Here it is now, though. Enjoy!**

...

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Two

…

"Merry Christmas!" four of the X-Men shouted, lifting their coffee mugs in a sort of salute. It was, in fact, Christmas Eve and the team was having a little party at their favorite hang-out in Salem City, Coffee-A-Go-Go.

"To Professor Xavier!" toasted Scott Summers, at eighteen definitely the eldest member of the X-Men. "None of us would be here without him!"

"It's too bad _Hank_ can't be here," said Carly Crocker, the absent X-Man's girlfriend and honorary member of the team. "It's nice that he's spending time with his family over the holidays, though."

"He'll be back after New Year's," Jean Grey reassured the other girl, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Besides, now you have until then to get him a present!"

"But I can't _find_ anything he'd like," Carly complained. "That's the problem with dating a classically educated guy. His tastes are so…sophisticated!"

"Seriously!" interrupted Bobby Drake, youngest member of the team at fifteen years old. He pointed his iced coffee at the two girls. "Are you gonna let me finish my story or what?"

"Oop, sorry, Bobby," said Jean, lifting her hands in surrender. "Go right ahead."

"Right. Thanks," Bobby said, grinning. "Anyway, so Cyclops and I were being held down by these mardies, right? So, the head guy takes Cyke's visor, and Cyke screws his eyes shut. The dude says something like 'I better take your weapon away!' And Cyke says…" he pointed at Scott.

"'No, you don't get it'," Scott quoted himself, smiling. "'I am the weapon.'"

"'I am the weapon'!" Bobby repeated. "He opens his eyes and _bam! Wham! Badrr!_ All the mardies. On the ground. Unconscious!"

The newest addition to the team, blond brooder Warren Worthington III, laughed. "That's awesome!" he said.

"Ah, but Icicle here left out the best part!" Scott said, grabbing Bobby and giving him a noogie. "As I'm blasting the dude, Bobby ices up and yells 'And I'm a Popsicle!' before helping me out."

This time, Jean and Carly joined in the laughing as Bobby pushed Scott off of him. "Aw, I never liked you guys anyway," he said in a mock-sulky tone as he picked his coffee back up and nursed it like a beer."You're always pickin' on me."

"We are not," Jean said. "Don't be so sensitive…" she smiled, barely able to contain her laughter, "…Popsicle." She and Carly burst out laughing again as Bobby muttered something sarcastic about cooties under his breath.

"All right," Warren said quietly. "I want to make a toast to someone who isn't an X-Man, but who has certainly made the X-Men's lives easier." He lifted his cup of cappuccino. "To Forge, without whom we'd be Sentinel-bait every time we walked down the street!"

"To Forge!" the others echoed, lifting their cups. Forge was a young, Cherokee mutant with a penchant for electronics who had been living at Warren's mutant safe house in Chicago, along with nine others. When he had moved into Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, with its vast underground computer and robotics labs, Forge had gone into seventh heaven.

The first thing he had built was a device of his own invention, made to jam a Sentinel's sensors. It came in both a large size, which was being installed on the Institute's grounds at that moment, and a personal size, which could be hidden in a pocket. Its only drawback was that the personal one could only hold enough power to work for a few hours at a time, after which the wearer would be vulnerable again until they could recharge it. Still, it had many advantages over simply hoping not to be noticed.

Warren was jolted out of his thoughts by a high-pitched electric ringing sound, which echoed through the café and made everyone wince, especially Carly, who was blind and relied more on hearing than the others. In a corner, Zelda, the barista, was banging on the side of a television set in an attempt to fix the problem.

"These stupid TVs!" she said, stepping back to look at it. "I swear, th' cable companies mix stuff up on purpose so people have ta pay 'em ta fix—"

Zelda's rant was interrupted by the static on the screen coalescing into a coherent image—A six-fingered hand in a circle. This was quickly replaced by a helmeted man in red and purple sitting on a chair. The clasp of his cape was marked with the same symbol. Behind his chair stood a tall man with Roman features, wearing a long, brown coat. To either side of the man stood a young person—A girl in a red leotard, tights, and cape on his left, and a young man in a blue bodysuit with a white lightning bolt slashing across the front to his right. At the man's feet crouched a blue-furred, goblin-like man, and…

"Toad," Scott said, standing up. "So, this is who he works for."

"You know," said Jean, tilting her head to the side, "if you ignore the yellow eyes and fangs, that blue guy's kind of cute."

"Is that important right now?" Scott asked.

"It's _always_ important," Carly confirmed.

Scott shook his head in exasperation, and then sighed in annoyance as he saw Bobby obviously staring at the girl in red. "Iceman, get your head in the game!" he said, lightly smacking Bobby over the head.

"Greetings, _Homo sapiens,"_ said the man on the screen. "My name is Magneto, leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, and soon to be destroyer of the human race." He leaned forward and clenched a fist in the air as he spoke. "Too long have sapien fools oppressed us. Too long have we tolerated it. Now, it is time for _Homo superior,_ the Mutants, to take their rightful place as rulers of humanity.

"I realize that now is not the time for the vast majority of my Mutant brothers and sisters to rise up against their oppressors, for we have been weakened, and our enemies are strong," Magneto went on. "Therefore, I and my Brotherhood have made it our personal mission to weaken in return, nay, to _destroy_ the sapien leaders who trample upon us day and night. Scarlet Witch?"

The girl handed Magneto something, and he held it up to the camera. It was a vial of blue-green liquid. "In this vial," said Magneto, "is a serum which will, if he is lucky, transform the target of my choice into a Mutant. However, if he does not possess the necessary genetic marker…" he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the individual. Especially," he leered, "if that individual is a liberticidal fool who cannot see beyond the end of his own nose. We are the Brotherhood of Mutants, and this is our promise."

The screen flashed the six-fingered hand logo again for a moment before returning to regular programming. Scott sat back down for a moment. "Well," he said, pushing his glasses up, "I guess we better get back to the mansion. Think Forge can triangulate the source of that signal?"

"If he can't do it, no one can," Warren replied.

Scott nodded. "Sorry Carly," he said. "We've gotta go. This is a job for the X-Men."

…

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Three

…

After liberating Kurt Wagner, and Wanda and Pietro Maximoff from the villagers of Winzeldorf, Magneto took them to one of the main roads, where a van was waiting for them. The vehicle was being driven by a Roman-featured man in a long, brown coat.

"This is Mastermind," Magneto introduced them in English. "Mastermind, these are the recruits you found with the Cyberno unit. This is Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler, and Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver." He turned to the trio. "I will address you by these names you have chosen for yourselves, and not by the names which your human parents gave you, is that understood?"

Fortunately, having travelled quite a bit, all three of them knew English, and were able to respond. "No, I don't understand," said Pietro. "You make it sound like we are going to be seeing a lot of each other."

"I saved your lives," Magneto said, raising an eyebrow. "You owe me a debt. The way you are going to repay that debt is by coming with me to America, and working to free the mutants there, who are being oppressed. Now, did you understand _that,_ boy?"

"I understand," Pietro said, looking away angrily, "even if I don't like it."

"Where will we be living?" asked Wanda.

"I will explain everything on the way," said Magneto, waving a hand. The van doors opened and the engine started. "Get in the van. There is a private jet waiting for us at a nearby city. From there, we are going to New York City, the heart of America's corruption; for it is there that the Mutant-hunting Sentinels are created from the Master Mold."

…

Kurt, or Nightcrawler as he supposed he was called now, had never been in a private jet before. The circus he had been in (Stefan Szardos' Cavalcade of Curiosities) was hardly an affluent affair, and not even Stefan Szardos himself had ever had much money. In fact, Kurt had been travelling in the off season, trying to earn a little extra, when he had been captured in Winzeldorf.

He quickly found out that while he could stand any sort of height on a trapeze or tightrope, he strongly disliked being in a metal box twenty-thousand feet in the air.

So, he sat tight in his seat and pulled out his Rosary to pray. After ten minutes or so, he felt someone sit down in the seat beside him. Calmly, he finished the decade he was praying before setting the beads down and looking up.

"Why are you praying?" Wanda asked, playing with the hem of her black skirt. "What has religion gotten any of us, except almost killed?"

"Well, I prayed for deliverance, and Magneto showed up," Kurt joked. "Ach, in all seriousness, though, I am praying for the souls of those people who were going to kill us. They do not understand their own religion, which teaches that we are all made in God's image."

Wanda hid a smile. "I'm sorry," she said, "but you look like a blue goblin!"

Kurt smiled back, baring his short fangs. "Not the body," he said, tapping his head, "the soul. We are the same where it counts, and even looking like a blue goblin cannot change this, _ja_?"

Sitting back in her seat, Wanda tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose…" she said, just as Pietro limped over to them and collapsed in a seat across the aisle.

"I want to run around!" he moped, glaring at his knee as though that would make it heal faster. "Why won't this thing heal?"

Kurt paled beneath his fur. "Perhaps running around on a plane would not be the best thing to do," he said. "Why don't we all just sit quietly and…read books or something?"

"Are you afraid of heights, Nightcrawler?" Wanda asked.

 _"Nein,_ of course not!" said Kurt. "I just don't like flying in airplanes."

Wanda laughed. "Trade seats with me," she said. "I'll take the window and you can have the aisle seat, all right?"

 _"Dankeschoen,"_ Kurt said.

 _"Bitteschoen,"_ replied Wanda.

…

After many hours, the small plane landed in a field, to avoid the gene detectors in airports. From there, they transferred to another van and drove into New York City. Finally they stopped, outside of a dingy brownstone in the Bronx.

"This is your headquarters?" Pietro asked incredulously, getting out of the van. "It's a dump!"

"Only on the outside," said Mastermind. "I have quite a bit of money, and the inside is the best facility that money can buy."

"It is advantageous for the Brotherhood of Mutants to remain out of sight," Magneto said, nodding. "We have many enemies, and few of them would hesitate to destroy our home and wipe us out at the source." He grimaced. "They are primitive apes."

"As you say, my lord," said Mastermind, walking up the steps of the brownstone and opening the door. Magneto went in first, with Kurt, Wanda, and Pietro following. Inside it was just like Mastermind had said. Nothing could hide the obvious layout of an old tenement building, but the polished, clean floors and walls, the carpeted steps, and the prints of art masterpieces did quite a bit to help.

"It's nice," Wanda said, looking around. "I could live here."

"Good," said Magneto, "because it shall be your home for quite some time. Your rooms are upstairs. I've had Toad prepare them for you. Soon, you will be given uniforms, and then we shall let the _Homo sapiens_ know of our existence."

"Ooh, I can't go upstairs!" Pietro whined, collapsing on the floor. "My leg was injured. I can't run, it's hard to walk!"

Magneto removed his helmet to reveal snow-white hair, similar to Pietro's. Tucking the helmet under one arm, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nightcrawler, please carry Quicksilver downstairs to the basement," he said. "Mastermind will treat his leg. Mastermind?"

"Yes, my lord?"

"Activate a level two scan and an X-Ray. Find out what is wrong with our speedster."

"Yes, my lord," said Mastermind, gesturing for Kurt to follow him. Kurt helped Pietro to his feet and followed the older man downstairs, where he was ordered to put Pietro down on a high-tech looking bed in a clean infirmary.

"This _ist_ a large basement," Kurt said, looking around.

"The Brotherhood also owns the buildings around this one," Mastermind explained as he activated the machinery and scanned Pietro. "We had the basements merged into one large one. Down here, we have an infirmary, our training gym, and the Cyberno Mutant-detecting device that helped us to find you." The scanner beeped, and Mastermind looked at it and scowled.

"Your leg is perfectly fine, Quicksilver," he said. "The scan indicates that you have a healing factor that fixed it completely over two hours ago."

"Well, then, something's wrong with your machine!" groaned Pietro. "I can't stand, my leg hurts, I—"

Mastermind's form twisted and shivered, to be replaced by a nightmarish monster. The creature stepped forward and raised its claws to deliver a crushing blow. There was a blur of motion, and Pietro vanished from the table and reappeared on the other side of the room, shivering.

"As I said," Mastermind said, having returned to himself. "Your leg is fine."

 _"Was—_ what was that?" asked Kurt, his yellow eyes wide. "How did you do that?"

"My Mutant ability is to transmit images—hallucinations—into the minds of others," explained Mastermind. "I can make you see whatever I want. Now, shall we go upstairs?" He turned and swept from the room, long coat flaring behind him. Kurt and Pietro looked at each other nervously.

 _"Unglaublich,"_ said Kurt.

Pietro nodded. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

The two Mutants made their way upstairs, and at the top of the steps, ran into a green boy, slightly younger than them, carrying two bundles of cloth.

"Here are your uniforms," he said in a reedy British accent, thrusting the bundles into their arms. "The blue one's for Quicksilver and the red one's for Nightcrawler. Locker rooms are down the hall." He gestured with his head.

"Thank you," Pietro said before vanishing with a blur of speed.

 _"Danke,"_ said Kurt, shaking the boy's hand. He looked oddly at the costume the boy was wearing. It was an orange bodysuit with purple frills around the neck, wrists, and ankles. "And you are..?"

"I'm Toad," he said, moving as if to brush long hair behind his ears. However, there was none there. "I'm sort of the chief cook and bottle-washer around here."

Kurt gave Toad a blank look and he sighed. "It's an expression, man," he explained. "It means I do all the work nobody else wants to do."

"Ah," Kurt nodded. "Well, thank you, Toad. I suppose I had better go and put this on, _ja?_ " He turned and walked down the hall to the locker room. When he got inside, he unfolded the costume and spread it on a bench. It was similar to his old circus costume, being a black bodysuit overlaid with a red 'V' shape that culminated in flared shoulders, and having white gloves and boots. However, this costume was made of more durable fabrics, and had the addition of a utility belt buckled with the same six-fingered hand symbol as Magneto's brooch.

A few minutes later Kurt stumbled out of the locker room, pulling on one of his boots, to find Wanda and Pietro in the middle of an argument. Pietro's costume was a simple, blue bodysuit with white gloves and boots, and a white lightning bolt across the front. The problem appeared to be Wanda's costume, which consisted of a red leotard with red gloves, boots, and a red metal 'M' shaped headband.

"No sister of mine is going outside dressed like that!" Pietro said.

"But Pietro," Wanda said, crossing her arms, "I don't have anything else to wear! It's this, or my dress. The one that got torn back in Winzeldorf."

"Then go put the dress back on!" said Pietro. "I'll talk to Magneto, and he'll get you a different costume."

"Ahem."

Wanda and Pietro turned to see Kurt pulling a bundle of red and light pink fabric from under a bookcase. "It seems that our Toad is a toad in deed as well as name," he said, tossing the fabric to Wanda. "You can put this on with the leotard."

She caught the clothes and gave Kurt a smile. "Thank you," she said before vanishing back into the girls' locker room. When she came out, she was wearing a light pink bodysuit under the leotard, and a red cape over the whole ensemble.

"It's not perfect," Pietro said, resting his chin in his hand and giving his sister a suspicious look, "but I can live with it."

"Are you all ready?" Magneto asked, appearing at the top of the stairs. "I am about to broadcast my message to the sapien oppressors. Soon, my Brotherhood of Mutants, we will strike!"

…

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Four

…

The four X-Men currently in residence at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters rushed into the computer lab to find that the resident computer nerd, Forge, was already interfaced with a PC under the observation of Professor Xavier.

"Hello, students," said the Professor, looking up as they came in. "I am assuming, then, that you also saw Magneto's broadcast?"

"Right," Scott agreed. "It looks like you had the same idea we did, Professor. Having Forge trace the signal?"

"Eh, it's no good," Forge said, withdrawing his prosthetic arm from the USB port. It folded up until it looked like a normal, flesh and bone arm once again. "Whoever they've got on tech is a freakin' genius. Multiple signal switchbacks and piggybacks. I can't find just a single source for it. Sorry, sir."

"It's quite all right, Forge," Xavier said, patting the boy on the shoulder. "I'm sure you did your very best, and that is all I can ask of anyone. Thank you." He turned back to the X-Men as Forge left the lab. "Well then, I'm afraid that we are simply going to have to wait for Magneto's next move. If we cannot find out where he is, then we must wait in ambush where we hope he _will_ be."

"The devil you say!" interrupted Warren Worthington III. "My Dad's in with the MRD _and_ Trask Industries! For all we know, Magneto's going after him!" He scowled and banged a fist down on a desk. "He might be a jerk, but he's _my_ jerk," he slumped into a chair, "and he's the only Dad I've got."

"It's all right, Warren," said Jean, resting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll keep your Dad safe." She looked at Professor X. "Do we really have to keep guys like Bolivar Trask and Colonel Moss safe, though? I mean, wouldn't the world be a better place if all the anti-Mutant guys were turned into Mutants?"

"I'm with Jean-o," Bobby said. "Guys like that deserve to be muties like us." He looked around and saw that the others were glaring at him. "What?"

"'Mutie' is a genetic slur, Bobby," said Scott. "I've already asked you a few times to stop using it."

"It's not his fault," Jean said. "It's the environment he was raised in."

"You're just saying that because he agrees with you."

"And what if I am?"

 _"Enough,"_ said the Professor's voice, directly into their minds as he pressed two fingers to his right temple. _"Are you X-Men or are you squabbling children? I expect you to deport yourselves according to your rank within this school. Jean, if Trask or Moss was made a Mutant by the machinations of a terrorist like Magneto, then it would only fuel the fire against us. Do you understand?"_

"Yes, Professor," Jean answered aloud. "So, what's our plan of action then?"

"I want you to come up with a plan of action and submit it to me for approval," the Professor said. "Scott, I am making you de facto leader of the X-Men until Henry returns. I trust that you will do your best to make me proud."

Scott straightened up, clenching his fists at his sides. "You can count on me, sir," he said proudly. Turning to the others, he grinned. "All right, X-Men, suit up and get to the War Room! Let's come up with a plan to guard our worst enemies from their worst enemies."

"I still don't get what's wrong with 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'," Bobby complained as they all left the room.

…

"It stinks down here," Quicksilver complained, picking his way carefully through the sewer pipe. "This muck is doing nothing for the cleanliness of my uniform!"

"I don't understand why we couldn't just use the stuff in that vial, like you said," the Scarlet Witch said to Magneto. She was just as disgusted as her brother over the disgusting sewage of New York City, but refused to whine. "Is that not what it was for?"

"That was not anything like enough," Magneto said, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the five members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. "For it to work, they need to drink about a cup of it. That was all my contact managed to manufacture at first, but I was recently sent a missive that he had the rest. All we need to do is go and collect it."

"I see," said the Scarlet Witch, looking around and wrinkling her nose. "And your friend lives in the sewers, does he?"

"Not usually," Magneto admitted. "This is strange, even for him. Ah, here we are."

In the wall of the sewer pipe was set a round, pristine, brushed steel door with a coded lock. Magneto typed in a code and the door rolled open, revealing a gleamingly clean laboratory inside.

 _"This_ is more like him," said Magneto, walking in with the Brotherhood in tow.

"Ah, Magnus, I was wondering when you would get here." The members of the Brotherhood did a collective turn to see a pale man in a lab coat thrown on over a Victorian-era suit walking towards them, arms open. "I see that you have some new recruits. May I take DNA specimens of them?"

"I have no objections," said Magneto, "but you shall have to ask them, Sinister."

Sinister raised an eyebrow as the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Nightcrawler all glanced at each other. "First," said Nightcrawler, "what are you going to do with our blood?"

"Study it," Sinister said, shrugging. "I'm a simple scientist, studying ways to improve on Mutant-kind. At the moment, I'm trying to trace the origins of the X-gene, and that requires specimens from as many Mutants as I can find."

Nightcrawler shrugged as well. "All right," he said. "Go ahead." Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch gave their permission as well, and Sinister grinned, baring short fangs.

"Excellent," he said. "Lightwave?" A blonde girl, also in a lab coat, stepped out of a shadow. Under her coat, she was dressed in a blue bodysuit liberally dotted with gold sequins. "This is my apprentice, Lightwave," Sinister introduced her to everyone. "She can control light to create lasers, spotlights—anything anyone could need."

"I can even become invisible by absorbing light instead of reflecting it," Lightwave said. "It's pretty cool. I'm thankful to Mister Sinister for teaching me how to use my Gifts."

"Yes, well, that's quite enough of _that,"_ Sinister said, sneering. "Lightwave, please take blood samples from the blue one and the twins, then run them through a scanner in the other lab, and report anything unusual to me."

"Yes, sir," Lightwave said, dropping a curtsey before guiding the three Brotherhood members over to a lab table. "Mister Sinister makes me curtsey to him," she explained, gesturing to Nightcrawler that he should sit down. "He's _very_ old-fashioned. I think that he grew up in the eighteen-hundreds." She pursed her lips as she uncapped a syringe. "Anyway," she told Nightcrawler, "you might feel a pricking sensation, but it shouldn't hurt."

"So, my old friend," Magneto said, following Sinister to another table, which had what appeared to be a high-school chemistry set on it, "what possessed you to move into the sewers of New York?"

"I moved here from Nebraska to be closer to someone I am studying," Sinister explained. "The sewers are part of…another project that I am working on. That needs to be kept a secret for now, though. Ah, here we are." He lifted a box of vials, all filled with a blue-green, viscous fluid. "Here's your serum. All ready to destroy whatever targets you so wish."

"I do not wish to destroy them, only to transform them into one of us," said Magneto, sharply.

"But with the targets you have in mind," Sinister said, lifting a finger, "that would destroy them emotionally, to say nothing of their careers and families, will it not?"

"Touché," Magneto said, looking faintly impressed. "I admit, that is indeed my plan. When the leaders of the anti-Mutant groups are themselves Mutants, then they shall have no choice but to accept their brethren. Is that not so?"

"It is to be hoped," said Sinister, turning back to the table and curling his lip in a sneer at Magneto's perceived naiveté.

…

A double-helix curled across the screen. _"You feel sick inside every time you wake up,"_ said the voice-over. _"Your family's been ripped apart, your friends have all turned their backs on you, all because of one thing—the X-gene. Now, thanks to Worthington Pharmaceuticals, you no longer have to worry. Introducing 'Hope', the only medicine that actually suppresses the Mutant X-gene, it can allow you to live a normal life, because we care."_

Scott switched the screen off. "Okay, Warren, you're right. Directly after a Mutant terrorist reveals his plans to destroy anti-Mutant people probably _isn't_ the best time to advertise a drug that can take our powers away." He leaned over and put his hands on the table, meeting the other X-Men's eyes as best as he could in his visor. "So, Magneto's going after Worthington. What do we do about it?"

…

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Sorry that this is two weeks late. I haven't gotten any reviews since the first chapter, and I'm feeling discouraged. I don't like to beg for reviews, but it doesn't take that long to give me a quick 'hey' and to say what you do or don't like. Thanks.**

...

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Five

…

Warren Worthington, Jr. walked down the corridors of the Worthington Pharmaceuticals building in Chicago. The sub-basement he had entered a moment before was completely devoted to finding a cure for the Mutant X-gene. Worthington stopped before a door labeled _Dr. Kavita Rao (Hope Division),_ and knocked.

"Enter," called a pleasant voice with a soft Indian accent. Opening the door, Worthington stepped into the lab and looked around. Mostly, it was a pretty standard genetics lab, with computers and specimen cultures all around, but along one wall was a long, glass panel, behind which was a little girl's bedroom.

However, Worthington was unimpressed, having seen it all many times before. He quickly walked to a workspace where someone was working and cleared his throat.

"Oh, Mr. Worthington!" said the woman, whirling around. Dr. Rao was a pretty, dark-skinned woman with a red dot in the center of her forehead, announcing her Hindu beliefs. "I didn't realize it was you."

"It's all right, Kavita," Worthington said, pulling an office chair over and sitting on it. "I just stopped by to see how production of Hope is coming along."

"We are on schedule, Mr. Worthington," Rao replied, pulling up some files on her computer. "As you can see, we are almost ready to begin human testing."

"And is the subject ready?" Worthington asked. He glanced at the glassed in room on the other end of the lab and raised an eyebrow. "She's agreed to everything?"

"Tildie would do _anything_ to make the nightmares go away," said Dr. Rao. "Trust me, Mr. Worthington. She's ready."

"Good," said Worthington. "Prep the serum."

…

In the basement of the Brotherhood of Mutants' brownstone, Quicksilver was rapidly pacing back and forth. Nightcrawler attempted to watch him, but shook his head and gave up after the movement became too hard on his eyes. "Pietro," he said. "Please, slow down."

"I'm going at a normal pace!" Quicksilver said, stopping for a moment and fidgeting. "It's everything else that's goingfreakin'slow!" That said, he continued to pace up and down, just slightly too fast for the eye to comfortably follow. Suddenly, the door opened and closed, and the motion blur no longer filled the room.

 _"Himmel!"_ groaned Nightcrawler, vanishing after him with a _bamf!_

He reappeared in the ground floor kitchen, where Quicksilver was excavating the refrigerator. "There'snothingherethat'sanygoodtoeat!" he complained. "I'mgoingouttoseeifIcanfindsomething." He blurred and vanished in a flicker of pseudomotion. Nightcrawler groaned again and vanished after him, resigning himself to probably having to search all of New York City.

Fortunately, Nightcrawler only had to search a few blocks. Unfortunately, what led him to Quicksilver was the sound of conflict. The speedster had run into five Sentinel Trackers. One of the purple robots, conspicuously labeled with the Greek letter Alpha, had reconfigured into a humanoid form for combat, and had sprouted three claw-like spikes from the knuckles of each hand.

 _"Mutant apprehension in progress,"_ it said in a high-pitched screech as the other Sentinel Trackers, still in canine configuration, snarled menacingly. _"Halt, or be destroyed."_

The blur that was Pietro Maximoff coalesced into his form long enough to say "Destroy _this!"_ and punch the Sentinel in the face. Then he blurred away from it and appeared again a short distance away, clutching his wrist and glaring at his hand. "Punchingmetalwithfleshisa _bad_ plan!" he said. "Won'tbedoingthatagain!"

Nightcrawler glanced at the Trackers, which were stalking closer, completely unharmed, and growling menacingly. He teleported to Quicksilver's side. "Are you all right, _mein Freund?"_ he asked. "Your fingers are not broken?"

"Whyareyoutalkingso _slow?"_ asked Quicksilver. "Everything'smovinginslowmotionandIneedittostop!" He rushed towards the Trackers, grabbing them and throwing them into each other as they wildly swiped at him with their claws.

Suddenly, there was a metallic hum. The Sentinel Trackers lifted into the air and compressed into a ball of purple metal. "Why did you leave headquarters?" Magneto asked, descending from above, eyes glowing white beneath his helmet. "It is not safe on these streets for mutants with no combat training."

"Pietro was restless," Nightcrawler explained, gesturing towards the twitching Quicksilver. "He ran out to explore a little, and I followed him."

"Hmm," Magneto said thoughtfully, looking at the speedster. "The Scarlet Witch and Toad just returned from their reconnaissance mission in Chicago. She is showing symptoms similar to those of Quicksilver." He stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before turning away. "Bring him back to base!" Magneto ordered Nightcrawler.

…

Wanda gasped for air, writhing on a gurney. "Mastermind! C'mon, man, you gotta _do_ something!" Toad panicked, rocking back and forth with his hands over his ears.

"I'm trying to get a scan!" Mastermind snapped. "Every time I turn my machine on, her powers turn it right back off! Would you like to try?"

Toad shook his head.

"Then stay out of this!"

"Maybe," Toad suggested tentatively, "I should give her mouth-to-mouth?"

"Don't even think about it, Herr Toad," Nightcrawler said from the top of the steps, where he had appeared moments ago with Quicksilver in tow. "Her brother would not take kindly to it." Pietro's twitches were now so bad that he could barely stand. Kurt threw him over one shoulder and hauled him bodily across the room to lay him down on the other hospital bed.

The change was as immediate as it was unexpected. The tendrils of red energy lashing out from the Scarlet Witch suddenly attached themselves to Pietro, who took a deep breath and stopped twitching. Wanda also relaxed, able to breathe easier.

"Interesting," said Mastermind. "Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are evidently symbiotic. Without Wanda, Pietro's speed apparently becomes uncontrollable, and without Pietro, Wanda's powers have nowhere to safely siphon off, and begin to attack her system."

"They were apart for only a few hours, and it was bad," Nightcrawler said, scratching the back of his head. "We can never separate them, not even for missions." He glanced at Mastermind. "How do you think of this stuff?"

"I belong to…a group which has done extensive studies on mutants over the years," said Mastermind. "These two aren't my first symbiotes. The signs are clear. Fortunately, they will probably become more independent of each other as they get older. Right now, at seventeen, their powers aren't fully formed."

Nightcrawler decided to take the man's word for it. "So, how did the reconnaissance mission go?"

"It went fine, bro," said Toad. "You'll hear about it later, when Magneto calls a meeting."

"I'm calling it now," said Magneto's voice. Nightcrawler, Toad, and Mastermind turned to see him silhouetted at the top of the steps, cape flapping and face obscured by his helmet.

"How does everyone get up there without me noticing?" Toad muttered.

Walking down the steps, Magneto removed his helmet and freed his shoulder-length, white hair. He tucked the helmet under his arm and fixed Toad with his glowing eyes. "Well? Nightcrawler asked you a question."

"Right, well, uh," Toad stammered, "Worthington's security ain't _nothing_ compared to the Scarlet Witch! She can get past it in a heartbeat. The serum stuff is being made by a Doctor…'Rao'? She has a mutant kid in a glass box, and experiments on her."

Magneto grit his teeth angrily. "Disgusting!" he spat. "How dare that...that… _sapien_ even _touch_ a mutant!" He took a deep breath and let it out. "Whatever has been done to this child, we will avenge a hundredfold. Please continue, Toad."

"I will take over from here," Wanda said, sitting up. She rubbed her eyes and swung her legs over the side of the gurney. "Thank you, Mortimer," she said to Toad. "Anyway, Rao works with the girl in her laboratory most of the day and night. Long past anyone except security has left. I checked her times in the security chief's office. So, we take out security, and then get her with _our_ serum." She smiled. "Is this a good plan?"

"I certainly approve, Scarlet Witch," said Magneto. "Few to stand in our way, but enough witnesses to spread our name. Perfect." He turned and walked back up the stairs. "We move tonight, my brothers. There is work to be done."

…

To be continued…


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Since I have this story finished, I decided to publish the rest of it over the next few weeks.**

...

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Six

…

 _"Why can't we just go inside?"_ Iceman complained through the X-Men's psychic link. He was currently leaning against the outer wall of the Worthington Pharmaceuticals building in Chicago. _"Nothing's happening out here. Nothing's_ gonna _happen out here!"_

 _"We can't go inside because dear old Dad's building has gene detectors in the doors,"_ Angel explained from the roof of a nearby building. _"Heh. Did_ that _ever make it hard to visit him at work."_ He grimaced. _"Anyway, they're more sophisticated than your average Sentinel sensor suite. No way even Forge's little gadgets would hide us."_

 _"Besides, Bobby,"_ Jean chimed in, _"they've probably got the heating on in there. You don't really want to go into a heated building, do you?"_

 _"Grr. I hate it when other people have a point,"_ growled Iceman. _"Fine. I'll just stay out here and be_ completely bored!"

 _"Keep the brainwaves clear, X-Men,"_ Cyclops reminded them. _"We need to know at a moment's notice if something goes wrong."_

 _"'Keep the brainwaves clear,'"_ Iceman repeated mockingly. _"You'll notice that he's watching the back with the gorgeous redhead while I'm stuck out here with birdbrain."_

 _"You know I can hear you?"_ said Jean, raising an eyebrow. _"We can_ all _hear you. Besides, you really think it's a picnic being stuck back in this alley? Oh, geez! That was a rat, wasn't it?"_

The X-Men, minus Hank McCoy, who was still at his parents', had been on stakeout at Worthington Pharm for over nine hours, and the strain was starting to wear on everyone. Scott, declaring that a good leader took the worst jobs for himself, had gone into the alley behind the building to watch the back entrances and the trucking docks. Everyone had been fine with this, until he noted that Jean was coming with him.

 _"You want to give out the assignments, Iceman?"_ said Cyclops, pounding the side of his fist into a wall. _"I put everyone in the places I thought they'd do the most good. You got a problem with that?"_

Iceman looked down at his boots and frowned. _"…No."_

 _"That's what I thought,"_ Cyclops replied. _"If anyone has problems with how I lead the team, you can take it up with me back at the Institute. Until then, Professor X put me in command. Now, please report."_

 _"All quiet up here,"_ said Angel. _"Although I would be a heck of a lot happier if everyone stopped chatting. I'm not used to this psychic stuff yet."_

 _"Who says 'heck'?"_ remarked Iceman. _"Anyway, all clear out front, too—Wait, I tell a lie. Dude with white hair across the street from me, checking his watch. Like, a young dude with white hair. What do I do about it?"_

 _"Keep an eye on him and report back to me if he does anything,"_ ordered Cyclops. _"We don't know who he is or what he can do, so be careful."_

 _"Yes, sir, General Cyclops, sir,"_ Iceman said sarcastically. He leaned against the wall of the alley he was in, directly across the street from the doors of the Worthington building, and sighed, trying not to project his thoughts.

"Let me give you a friendly warning, _mein Freund,"_ said a voice from above and behind him. Iceman turned quickly, but could see nothing in the shadows.

"Who's there?" he said, feeling ridiculous in his tight blue and yellow shirt and pants. "Show yourself!"

"Of course," said the voice, as a person dropped from the wall of the alley. Iceman jumped back in surprise, blue frost forming on his hands. "Now, we are face to face, _ja?"_ the person said.

"Hey, I recognize you," said Iceman, raising an eyebrow. "You're the dude from the Brotherhood vid."

"Well, in the circus," he said, sweeping into a low bow, "I was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler!"

"You know that's a kind of worm, right?" Iceman asked, trying to seem unimpressed. "You need to work on it."

"I like it the way it is," Nightcrawler said. "So, who are you, _mein Freund?"_

"Well, I'm not your 'froond'," Iceman replied, a chill running down the back of his neck. It spread along his body as his flesh turned to clear, cold ice. "I'm Iceman, from the X-Men, and I'm the dude who's gonna kick your pointy tail into next week if you try anything on Worthington."

…

"I'm going to have two kids." In the absence of anything interesting going on, Jean had decided to plan her wedding and marriage. Cyclops just sat on a trash can nearby, head on his hand, nodding and saying 'Oh, really?' at the appropriate moments. "They'll be named Nathan and Rachel."

"I am _not_ naming my son Nathan," Cyclops interjected, shuddering. "That name brings back _way_ too many bad memories."

"Who said anything about him being _your_ kid?" Jean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I…uh…" stammered Cyclops. "No one. I was, uh, just saying that if _I_ had a son, _I_ wouldn't name him Nathan, since that name brings back bad memories."

"Oh." Jean contemplated that for a moment, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Why does it bring back bad memories?"

"It's part of Mr. Sinister's real name," Cyclops explained. "Nathaniel Essex." He tilted his head to the side, trying to convey incredulity through his visor. "How do you not know this? It was actually _on the building_ where you rescued me!"

"Well, I didn't know that was _his_ name!" Jean protested. "Wait. Wait a second. You were blindfolded the entire time you were there! How do _you_ know that his name was on the building?"

Cyclops grinned, and then glanced up in worry as several windows on the twentieth floor of the building blew out. "Crap," he muttered. "How'd they get inside without us knowing? Jean?"

"I can't contact Iceman," Jean said, pressing two fingers to her right temple. "His thoughts are all jumbled. I've got Angel, though."

 _"I'm heading in now,"_ Angel's voice said, echoing through Jean's and Cyclops' heads.

 _"See you there,"_ said Cyclops.

...

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Seven

…

Angel—dressed in his spiffy, new blue-and-white X-Men uniform—power-dove through the window of his Dad's office, wings folded to avoid cutting himself on the broken glass. With his enhanced, raptor-like vision he took in the scene at lightning speed. The Brotherhood recruiter, Toad, was menacing Warren Worthington, Jr. with a syringe. Changing the angle of his flight, Angel plowed into Toad, grabbing him just below his arms in a football tackle and knocking him to the floor. He quickly rolled away in order to avoid the syringe and came to his feet, wings spread, fists up, and ready for a fight.

Toad hauled himself up, gripping his ribs, and Angel noted that he looked different from the last time he'd seen him. His dreadlocks were gone, hair cropped short, and he was dressed in an orange and purple outfit that resembled a jester's costume.

"Nice costume change, man," Angel said.

"Glad you like it," Toad hissed sarcastically, pulling himself to his feet and slipping into a martial arts stance. "It's your fault!"

Angel raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? How's it _my_ fault?"

"This freakin' costume is my punishment for not recruiting you!" said Toad, pointing at Angel with the hand not holding the syringe. "It's _completely_ your fault!"

"Too bad," said Angel, "so sad." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father reaching for a button on his desk to call security. "No way, Worthington," he said, darting over and grabbing the man's hand. "Let the grownups talk for a minute."

"Let Worthington go, Angel," Cyclops said as he and Jean floated in through the smashed window on a bubble of pink telekinetic energy. "Marvel can make sure he's safe while we clean up the pests."

Jean stepped forward as Angel released his father's wrist. "Right, Mr. Worthington," she said, "we're the X-Men, and we're on your side for the moment, even though you're a jerk." Her eyes glowed as she reached into his mind. "Just sit back and relax. Do what I tell you, and you'll be safe."

On the other end of the room, Cyclops and Angel faced off with Toad. "Two to one?" the Brotherhood member complained. "No fair!" He pressed a clawed finger to a communicator in his ear. "I got X-Men up here! Backup please?" There was a soft _'bamf'_ sound and Nightcrawler appeared beside Toad.

"You called, _ja_?" he asked, dropping into a crouch as Cyclops' optic blast roiled through the air above him. "Ach! I suppose you needed it!"

"You suppose right!" Toad yelled, jumping into the air to avoid another tackle from Angel. "Geez, dude! Do those wings actually help in a fight?" He turned around to punch the X-Man in the chest, and was stunned by a heavy blow to the head.

"Ever see a swan get angry?" Angel asked the unconscious mutant before turning to help Cyclops. "So, where'd Iceman go?" he asked his leader. "Isn't he supposed to be helping?"

Nightcrawler grinned, baring his fangs. "He's sort of tied up right now," he said. "Do not worry _mein Freund_. He'll be fine in a little while."

Cyclops snarled and fired an optic blast. It curved in a bizarre arc, almost missing Nightcrawler entirely. However, enough of it hit him to knock him against the wall. His head slammed back and he slumped to the floor, his eyes fluttering shut.

"Don't touch my team," Cyclops said. He turned and smiled at Jean and Angel. "So, guys, with the small exception of having to find Bobby, I think this mission went pretty well. We'll uh," he looked at the unconscious Brotherhood members on the floor, "we'll do a drive-'n'-drop in front of the MRD with these guys, and then we can all go home."

The floor shook. "Me and my big mouth," Cyclops sighed.

"Haha!" Everyone turned to see Toad half sitting up and rubbing his head. "You thought Magneto would trust _me_ with the big mission?" he said, rolling his eyes. "You guys are dumber than I thought!"

"He's right," Jean said. "I can sense them now." She picked up a paperweight from Worthington's desk and threw it across the room. It shattered against the wall. "There's another _telepath_ with them!" she yelled. "He was _hiding_ from me! Oh, I'm so _stupid!"_

"It's not your fault, Je—Marvel," Cyclops said, "but we have to move now. Can you get us downstairs fast?"

"On it," Jean said. She released Worthington from her psychic grip and concentrated on lifting herself and Cyclops.

"Right, meet you downstairs," Angel said, diving out the broken window.

…

Dr. Kavita Rao furiously struggled against the metal bands wrapped around her as Magneto floated her through the lobby. Quicksilver and Mastermind took care of any security guards that attempted to approach while the Scarlet Witch followed, carrying the young mutant, Tildie Soames. When they got outside, Magneto flung the mutating Dr. Rao down in front of the news crews that had gathered to document the attack on WorthPharm's building.

"This woman, along with her co-workers, has experimented on my people for long enough!" Magneto announced. "The other scientists of this company are dead, but that was not right for Dr. Rao, who led the research into 'curing' _Homo superior._ She will live on—as one of the mutants that she so despises!"

Kavita gasped in agony as the vertebrae of her back changed. Spines erupted from them, tearing through the back of her blouse and lab coat. She huddled on the ground, shaking.

"Is Momma Rao gonna be all right?" Tildie asked the Scarlet Witch. "She looks like she hurts."

Magneto turned to her, his eyes burning white in the shadows of his helmet. "She is fine, young one," he said. "In fact, she is better than she ever has been before, for now she is one of us!"

"You're lying!" Tildie said, a glowing, red vapor trailing from her eye sockets. "You hurt her!" She floated up out of the Scarlet Witch's arms, and the vapor began to form a three-dimensional image around her—an image of a monster with insectoid eyes, sharp teeth, and many, many, clawed legs. "You're a bad man!" it roared at Magneto before charging at him.

…

Iceman stumbled out of the alley, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh, that hurts!" he groaned. "That Nightcrawler froond really packs a wallop!" He heard a crash and looked up to see Magneto fighting what looked like a giant centipede with a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Geez, he must have hit me harder than I thought!" Iceman said, his eyes widening.

Magneto pulled several steel I-beams from a nearby building under construction and hurled them at the monster. There was a loud creaking sound, and the building began to lean as it started to collapse on the watching crowd below.

"No way, Jose!" yelled Iceman. He took a running start, jumped into the air, and aimed an ice-blast directly beneath him. He hit it sliding and kept blasting, forming an ice slide all the way to the base of the building. "Yes, I'm a mutant!" he said as he slid to a stop and some people gasped or screamed at seeing him, made of ice. "Get over yourselves, people. More important stuff's going on."

He lifted his hands and aimed another ice-blast, coating the building in thick ice to try and support it. It wasn't working. He couldn't do the job he wanted to do. He didn't have enough _time!_ He didn't—

Pink tendrils of energy wrapped themselves around the building, helping to support it. Iceman glanced to his left and saw Jean, her hands raised in the air, focusing her power. He smiled at her gratefully and applied ice to multiple points on the structure. "That's just a temp fix," he said, jogging over to Jean. "I dunno what to do in the long run. What do you think?"

"I think…that I'm going to try and calm down the kid who can conjure giant centipedes," Jean said. "You try and evacuate the crowd in case that thing starts coming down again. Scott's already got Warren on it." She turned and ran off towards the fight, leaving Iceman alone with a bunch of people who weren't too likely to listen to a mutant.

"Dang it," he said.

…

To be continued…


	8. Chapter 8

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Eight

…

Magneto threw everything he could at Tildie's nightmare monster, but it just kept coming. Cars flew through the air and the red, holographic centipede shrugged them off like they were nothing. Inside it, Magneto could see the tiny form of Tildie herself hovering, a look of anger on her face.

Three Sentinels tramped down the street, their enormous, metal feet shaking the ground at every step. _"Halt, mutants,"_ they droned as one, bringing their shoulder-mounted cannons to bear on Magneto and Tildie. The self-proclaimed Master of Magnetism saw the iron giants—normally his enemies—as his salvation. He reached out with his powers and lifted the foremost one into the air, disassembling it piece by piece and throwing it at Tildie.

On the ground, the X-Men were attempting to do some good. Angel and Iceman were trying to evacuate the civilians, Cyclops was attempting to hold off a squad of Sentinel Trackers and a scorpion-like Sentinel Prowler that were hell-bent on removing the X-Men, and Jean was trying to get close to Tildie in order to reach into the younger girl's mind and calm her down.

Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by blank white, reaching into infinity. "Great," she muttered, turning around. Standing behind her was a tall man with Roman features. He wore a long brown coat and had heterochromatic eyes of blue and green. "Who are you?" Jean asked.

"You may call me Mastermind," the man said, suddenly growing to immense height. "I'm a telepath like yourself, _Marvel Girl,_ but far more experienced."

"Then this must be the Astral Plane," said Jean. She concentrated, and a suit of medieval armor appeared around her. She picked up a helmet from the ground and placed it on her head, closing the visor and drawing her sword, she assumed a fighting stance. "Have at thee!" She charged, slashing at the giant.

To her surprise, Mastermind was no longer there. He had vanished as soon as Jean had swung her sword. Reappearing over to her right, more normally sized, he drew a sword of his own—a slim, flexible rapier in contrast to Jean's heavy claymore. "En garde!" he called, slipping into the stance of a fencer, sword pointed at Jean and his left arm up and back. "Allez!"

…

Out of the corner of his eye, Cyclops saw Jean collapse. One second, she was absolutely fine, on her way to help Tildie, and the next, she was unconscious. "Jean!" he yelled, whirling towards her. Immediately, he regretted it as a blast from the Sentinel Prowler's tail-mounted energy cannon hit him full in the back. Only the armored nano-fibers of Cyclops' uniform saved him as he fell to the ground, his trench coat on fire.

Quickly, Cyclops jumped to his feet, tearing away the blazing fabric. His hand went to the firing stud of his visor and an optic blast lanced out. Unfortunately, it curved at the last moment and completely missed the Prowler, striking the side of a building and raining bricks instead.

 _"Mutant apprehension in progress,"_ the Prowler snarled in a mechanized voice, moving closer and snapping its claws open and closed. _"Halt, mutant."_

"Geez, can't you guys say _anything_ else?" asked Cyclops, curling his lip. He tried firing again, and this time the blast flew true and knocked the tail cannon off. Well, mostly true. He had been aiming for its optical sensors. "Dang it, Sinister!" he muttered before running over to Jean and bending down beside her.

"Please be okay."

…

"What the freakin' hell is _wrong_ with you guys?" Iceman yelled various anti-mutant people. "This building is gonna come down any minute, and you're debating politics? You're idiots!"

"Dude, that's not going to make anyone move faster," Angel said, putting a hand on Iceman's shoulder. "Here, watch this." He took a step forward, spreading his wings, and got hit by a blur. He flipped completely over, and landed face-up on the ground in a spray of feathers. "Ow…"

Ice fog steamed from Iceman's hands as he looked around for the culprit. A second later, he found him, as the blur slammed into him, too. However, Iceman had frozen his feet to the ground, and the blur materialized into Quicksilver, who rocked back a few steps, holding his wrist.

"Aagh! That hurt!" he said, glaring at Iceman. "Why did you _do_ that?"

"Because you were gonna hit me!" Iceman explained. "Anyway, no more mister nice mutant." He fired an ice-blast at Quicksilver, coating him from his shoulders to his knees in thick, blue ice. Next, he turned to the crowd and created a wall of ice, which he slowly began moving towards them, forcing them to move away from the damaged building.

"That's what I'm talking about!" he crowed happily. Then he heard a noise he really did not want to hear just then.

 _Bamf._

…

Fencing on the Astral Plane was not like fencing in real life. At least, Jean didn't think so. She had only read the brochure for the fencing club at her last school, so it was hard to tell, but Astral fencing didn't have much to do with actual sword fighting skill. Instead, her attacks seemed to depend on how much she wanted to hurt Mastermind, and her parries depended on how hard she concentrated on not being hurt. For a fleeting second, Jean wondered what was happening to her physical body in the real world, but the thought was banished as Mastermind's rapier found her ribs.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, reeling back and clutching her side. "You've won already! You got Dr. Rao. Why don't you just go?"

Mastermind grinned, swishing his sword around. "That wouldn't be nearly as much _fun,_ Marvel Girl, now would it?" he said maliciously. "This is much better." He slashed at her again, slipping over her guard and gashing her face. "Tsk, tsk," he muttered. "Did I scar your pretty face?" He grinned again. "I hope it's _serious!"_

Jean felt something snap inside of her. A shrill screech rose in her throat, and she felt hot, like someone had set a fire in her gut. Her Astral Form shimmered, changed. When Jean was done, she was carrying a curved, Egyptian khopesh sword instead of the Scottish claymore she had had before, and her armor was vibrantly painted with flame patterns. She narrowed kohl-lined eyes and snarled. "Do _not_ make fun of me!"

She raised her sword and it burst into flames as she swung it. Mastermind attempted to parry, but his rapier was shattered into glittering shards. Jean's khopesh bit into his throat, and the world exploded.

…

In the real world, in Scott's arms, Jean gasped for breath. Her eyes opened, flashing a glowing red before settling back to their normal color. Scott, of course, couldn't tell the difference.

"Jean, you're alive!" he exclaimed, giving her a quick hug. He let go of her just as quickly and stood, helping her to her feet. He cleared his throat. "Uh, I mean, what happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jean said, dusting herself off. "I was fighting Magneto's telepath. A guy called 'Mastermind'."

"Prideful, much?" asked Scott, raising an eyebrow.

"I know, right?"

A loud crash brought the two of them back to the present. "That kid still needs calming down," Scott said, slipping back into his 'Cyclops' persona. "Go get her, Marvel."

"Copy that, Cyke," Jean said, turning and running in the direction of the battle.

"'Cyke'," muttered Cyclops. "I like that… I'll cover you!" he yelled after Jean.

 _"Don't,"_ her voice echoed in his mind. _"I can take care of myself, and with your powers the way they are, you might even hit me."_

 _"Yeah,"_ Cyclops thought, grinning wryly, _"I guess you're right."_ His grin turned into a look of concentration, and he turned to help Iceman and Angel, who, it seemed, were combating most of the Brotherhood's forces.

…

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Nine

…

"How you doing?" Angel asked Iceman. He swooped down and hit Quicksilver on the head with one wing. It didn't seem to do much. "You are really thick-headed, you know that?" he said to the dazed mutant.

"Him or…me?" asked Iceman from where he was wrestling with Toad. "'Cause if it's him…I agree!"

"Shut up and die!" Toad yelled, punching Iceman across the face.

"Hey, don't do that to my buddy Iceman!" Angel said, reaching over and grabbing Toad's frilled collar. He pulled, and Toad fell backwards with a strangled grunt. "Geez, that thing's handy." He turned and saw Quicksilver recovering, so he hit him over the head again. After some thought, he hit him one more time with the other wing. "Do yourself a favor and stay down," he told Quicksilver. "Even _my_ head hurts watching you, and I'm the guy who hit you!"

"Well, then stop with the hitting!" someone yelled. Streaks of red energy hit Angel full in the back, and he fell forward, landing on his hands and knees. His wings folded up as small as they could, and he couldn't open them again.

"What the…?" he gasped, looking around. Standing across the street was the girl from the Brotherhood's video. He grinned at her, turning on the Worthington charm. "Hey!" he called. "Maybe when this is all over, we can go someplace nice?"

Red spheres of energy formed around her hands, and Angel gulped. "So, uh, should I take that as a 'no'?"

"You hit my brother, you jerk!" she yelled, raising her hands and releasing the spheres. Angel managed to jump out of the way in time, and the energy dissipated harmlessly against Iceman's wall keeping the crowds away.

By now, Iceman had entrapped Quicksilver and Toad in blocks of ice. As the Scarlet Witch charged up another hex bolt to throw, he fired an ice-blast at her. She gasped and threw up her hands to try and block it.

 _Bamf._

Nightcrawler appeared next to her in a burst of purple smoke. He grabbed the Scarlet Witch's arm and teleported away before the blast hit, bringing her with him. The ice-blast splashed against the side of a building, and Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch appeared behind Iceman. Nightcrawler delivered a punch to the back of the frigid mutant's head—which did absolutely nothing.

Iceman turned and fixed the two with a glare. While in ice-form, his eyes were solid black, and it was fairly terrifying. "You know I'm actually freakin' _made of ice,_ right?" he asked.

" _Ja,_ so?" Nightcrawler asked, baring his short fangs.

"So," said Iceman, "I want the two of you to just _chill._ " He raised his hands and fired an ice-blast. At point-blank range, there was no way for Nightcrawler to teleport in time. He and the Scarlet Witch were left stuck inside of lumps of ice with only their heads free.

"I'll get you for this!" the Scarlet Witch hissed. "You flatscan lover! We almost did it!"

"You did do it," said Angel. "You made it so people will hate mutants even more. How does that feel, Scarlet?"

The Scarlet Witch glared at Angel in silence for a moment before spitting at him. She wasn't a very good shot, and she ended up just hitting the front of the lump of ice she was trapped in.

"This is cold," she said finally.

"Just like your heart," Angel replied melodramatically, turning and spreading his wings. He took off, Iceman right behind him on one of his new ice-slides, just as Cyclops appeared around the corner.

"Dang it," Cyclops groaned, turning and running off after his team. "Guys!" he yelled, "find Je—Uh, Marvel! Give her some help if you can!"

"Will do, Cyke!" called Iceman, turning towards where Tildie's holographic centipede was rampaging after Magneto. Cyclops though, headed back the way he had come, towards the Worthington building.

He was going to find Dr. Rao.

…

Dr. Kavita Rao writhed on the pavement. She couldn't get up. Her legs bent in ways they never had before. They weren't _broken._ It didn't _hurt._ But it was _wrong._ She couldn't roll over because of the bony spines protruding from her back, and a Sentinel Tracker was stalking her just within her peripheral vision. "Help me," she whispered.

"Glad to," someone said. Red tendrils of energy boiled through the air, shredding the Sentinel Tracker. Rao looked up, and standing over her was a young man in a blue bodysuit and a gray visor.

"Are-are you from the Brotherhood?" she asked warily, crawling to her knees.

The young man reached down and took Rao's hand, helping her to her feet. He slung one of her arms over his shoulder to support her. "Easy there. Hooked ankles are a doozy," he said. "No, I'm not with the Brotherhood. I'm Cyclops. I'm from the X-Men."

…

Jean's lungs burned as she pounded down the streets of Chicago towards the sounds of the fight between Tildie and Magneto. Every now and then, she heard a resounding crash and found herself praying that it was a Sentinel being destroyed and not a building, which might have people inside. She was tired from her psychic battle with Mastermind (goodness knew where he was now) and not looking forward to trying to calm a kid with the power to level a city block. Maybe more than just a city block.

The crashes stopped, and Jean turned a corner to see Tildie and Magneto facing off. The older man was breathing heavily from the strain of the long fight, but was doing his best not to show it. Tildie however, suspended in her centipede-like monster, didn't even look winded. Jean knelt on the ground and pressed two fingers to her temple.

 _"Hey, kid!"_ she yelled mentally. _"What do you think you're doing?"_

The little girl started, looking around. _"Who was that?"_ she wondered.

 _"I'm Marvel, I'm here to help,"_ Jean sent back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Iceman and Angel approach. She waved them off and went back to her conversation. _"What's your name, sweetie?"_

 _"I—I'm Tildie,"_ the girl thought. _"Tildie Soames. Are you in my head?"_

 _"Not exactly,"_ said Jean. _"Why don't you calm down and we can have a nice talk?"_

Tildie's eyes narrowed. _"The bad man hurt Mama Rao! He hurt her!"_ The monster roared and swiped at Magneto. Unfortunately, he was not prepared, and one of its many legs caught him in the chest. He was thrown high in the air, and went through the window of a nearby building. Tildie turned to finish him.

"Stop!" called a voice. A voice with a slight Indian accent. Tildie and Jean both turned to see Dr. Rao walking down the street, much the worse for the wear, and being supported by Cyclops, but still very much alive. "Tildie, please don't hurt anyone else."

"But…he hurt you," Tildie said, her voice unnaturally magnified by her holographic monster. "He hurt you…" A sob escaped the little girl's throat, and the giant centipede began to disintegrate. Within moments, all that was left of the creature was some red mist, swirling away into nothingness. Tildie ran, crying, into Dr. Rao's arms. "I'm so sorry, Mama Rao!" she sobbed. "You tol' me not to use it, but the bad man hurt you, an'—an'—"

"It's all right, Tildie," Dr. Rao said, kneeling on the ground and gathering the young girl into her arms. "I'm here. Everything is okay now."

Cyclops looked around at the destruction Tildie had caused. "Well, maybe not _everything's_ okay," he muttered.

Reporters were clamoring at a police line that had been set up near Iceman's wall. "Guys, I'm gonna give the press a statement," Cyclops decided.

"Are you nuts?" Angel asked. "You're a mutant! They'll chew you up and spit you out. I've seen it happen."

"People need to know that Magneto's talk isn't the only side to the mutant story," Cyclops said firmly. "Most mutants don't—can't agree with him, and I need to let people know that," he probably leveled his gaze at Angel. It was hard to tell, "even if it makes me look bad. You guys take Rao and Tildie back to the Blackbird. I'll take care of this."

"No way, Cyke. We're right behind you," said Iceman.

"True that," Angel agreed. "Let's get going."

"Somebody's gotta make sure you don't look like an idiot," said Jean. "Oh, wait. Too late."

"Ha ha," Cyclops said sarcastically. "You're a bucket of laughs, Marvel." He surveyed the team with pride. Who knew? Maybe when they got back to the Institute, he would be able to do this more often. Still, he was looking forward to turning the whole thing back over to Hank.

"Let's go," he said.

…

To be concluded…


	10. Chapter 10

Indomitable X-Men

Band of Brothers

Chapter Ten

…

The X-Men held a hurried discussion on what they were going to say before slowly walking to the police cordon, Kavita Rao and Tildie in tow. Cyclops took a deep breath. As leader of this mission, he was the spokesperson, and he wasn't happy about it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" a police officer asked as they got close.

"We just saved Chicago from Magneto," Cyclops said. "We want to talk to the press."

"Excuse me!" a reporter called from behind the line. "Excuse me! Can I ask you a few questions?"

The X-Men pushed past the police officer. "Sure," said Cyclops. "Whatever you want. Shoot."

"I'm Trish Tilby, reporting for NPR-TV," she said, gesturing to a nearby camera. "Now, you told the police that you just saved Chicago, is that correct?"

"I believe it is," Cyclops replied. "I mean, there's, uh, something of a mess," he chuckled wryly. "But I think that we helped save some lives."

"Well, who are you, exactly?" Tilby asked. "What gave you the right to interfere in this, a matter which some people might think was better left to the Chicago police department?"

"I'll answer the first question first," Cyclops decided. "I'm Cyclops, with the X-Men. That's X-hyphen-M-E-N, as in the mutant X-gene, you got that?" He gestured to the others. "These are my teammates: Marvel, Iceman, and Angel. We've got another member called Beast, but he couldn't make it today." Rubbing his chin, Cyclops thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah, and we're mutants."

Tilby's eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly regained herself. "Well, I suppose that's obvious," she said, "considering one of you is made of ice, and the 'Angel' has wings." She cleared her throat. "Again, why did you interfere in this?"

"Well, we've tangled with a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants before," Cyclops explained. "Or, as we call them, the Brotherhood of _Evil_ Mutants. They're bad dudes. But anyway, we don't agree with what Worthington's doing with his 'cure' for mutants, but we think that Magneto's way of doing stuff causes more harm than good. Us X-Men, we just want mutants and baseline humans to live in peace."

"Thank you…Cyclops," Tilby said. "That's all for now." As the X-Men left, they could hear her behind them talking. "Again, that was Cyclops, leader of the mutant splinter group known as the 'X-Men'. This is Trish Tilby, NPR-TV news reporting. Over to you."

"So," Iceman said, "anyone remember where we parked?"

…

"I don't like it," Pietro whispered to Wanda, many hours later in the back of the Brotherhood's van. "Magneto killed people in there. He says he is freedom fighter," he looked around and lowered his voice, "but I think he might just be a terrorist."

"I think he is right," Wanda replied. "You have seen how they treat people like us in this country. 'Land of the free'? Hah!" she scoffed. "It's a joke. People who are different are not free."

"I am in agreement with both of you," whispered Kurt Wagner from the seat behind them. "Magneto's goal is just, _ja._ But the way he goes about getting there may be wrong."

"What about those people we had to fight?" Pietro said, slightly louder. "Who were they?"

"The X-Men?" Toad called back from a few seats up. "They're bad news, bro. I've fought them more than once, come out the worst every time."

"We're here," Mastermind said, pulling to a stop in front of the brownstone the Brotherhood called home. "Get out. I need to find an icepack for my head."

"Do not even _mention_ icepacks!" said Pietro. "I'm cold all over."

"Yes, you were all great disappointments," Magneto said, getting out of the van. "More training is certainly needed before our next battle with Xavier's brats."

"Who is Xavier?" Kurt asked.

"He is none of your business," Magneto said, giving the young man a sharp glance. He turned and swept into the building, his cape fluttering behind him. The rest of the Brotherhood gave each other confused glances before following behind.

Once inside, Magneto went into the common room. He stopped in the doorway, stiffening. Someone was sitting there in the dark. "Well, Magnus," they said, "that was a rather spectacular failure." A pale hand reached out and lit a lamp, revealing Mister Sinister sitting in Magneto's large armchair. "At least we know my serum works."

"I don't have time for this, Sinister," Magneto said, walking into the room, followed by his Brotherhood. "If you have something important to say, then say it. Or leave."

"I got the results back from the blood tests," said Sinister as he stood up. He straightened his suit and faced Magneto. "The Scarlet Witch's and Quicksilver's were very interesting."

"Really?" asked Magneto, removing his helmet and raising an eyebrow. "And why would that be?"

"I ran the tests multiple times to be sure," said Sinister, "and now I am. They're your children, Magnus."

A candlestick leapt across the room and transformed into a knife in Magneto's hand. Before anyone could stop him, he lunged forward, driving the blade between Sinister's ribs. "Do not mock me, Sinister!" he hissed. "My children died at Wundagore the day they were born! You know this. You were there!"

"Let me go…and I'll explain…" Sinister choked, a black substance frothing on his lips. Magneto drew back, removing his knife, and Sinister held his side for a moment before removing his hand. Far from being a bloody wound, the gash in his side looked as though someone had stabbed a lump of wet clay. It closed as everyone looked on, and Sinister inspected his torn clothing. "This was my favorite suit," he sighed in annoyance.

"Explain yourself immediately!" demanded Magneto.

"I would like to hear this explanation too," Pietro said, nervously stepping forward. "My sister and I have a father—Django Maximoff." He gestured to Magneto. "We only met this man last week."

"I didn't believe it when the test results came back," said Sinister. "Wanda and Pietro—those are your names, correct?"

"Yes," said Wanda.

"Wanda and Pietro are far too young to be your children, Magnus. But then, a thought came to me that perhaps I could, ah, make amends for that tragedy all those years ago."

"You will _never_ be able to make amends for that betrayal, Sinister," Magneto snarled. "Just get on with your tale."

"Well, I decided to make sure," Sinister continued. "I had the Vanisher take me back to Wundagore, and I and my Marauders searched the wreckage of the Hellfire Evolutionary Institution. The only skeleton we found…was Magda's. There were no babies there, Magnus. From there, I visited some of my contacts inside the Club, and learned that the Inner Circle had, in fact, rescued two children from Wundagore, and placed them in stasis—a sort of cryo-freeze chamber they have— to be used as weapons later."

"That would explain their age…" Magneto mused, looking at the twins, a new light in his eye.

"That's not all," Sinister said. "Seventeen years ago, they removed the children from stasis in order to allow them to grow. They placed them with a man living in Transia. A man named Django Maximoff."

Pietro crossed his arms. "I think I would remember being taken in and out of stasis," he said, a note of disbelief in his voice.

"Not if you were a baby when it happened," Sinister pointed out.

"Even if all of this is true," Wanda said slowly, "we have a father. Django Maximoff is our father." She looked at Magneto. "I am willing to give you a trial run, but you did not raise us."

"I know," Magneto said, sitting in a chair and holding his head in his hands. "And I am so sorry for that, children. If I had known you were alive…"

"I'll take my leave now," Sinister said, sneering. "Family reunions are not my forte."

Magneto glared at the pale biologist as he plucked a top hat and great-coat from a coat rack and walked out, pushing past Toad, Kurt, and Mastermind, who were watching the whole thing as though it were a play. "Don't you have injuries to tend to?" Magneto asked them dangerously. The whole group suddenly left, leaving Magneto, Pietro, and Wanda by themselves.

Pietro shifted uncomfortably for a second before blurring and reappearing on a couch. "If Wanda is willing to give a chance," he said to Magneto, "then I will too."

"Thank you," said Magneto. "My children…you don't know what this means to me."

"First, we should get to know each other," Wanda said, sitting down on the other end of the couch. "What's your real name?"

"It's Erik," Magneto said slowly, as though remembering something he had not thought of in a long time. "My name is Erik Lensherr, and your mother's name was Magda. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever met. In fact, you look a bit like her, Wanda, now that I think about it. We met in 1962…"

…

When the X-Men got back to the Xavier Institute, they found Hank waiting for them in the hangar. He didn't look all that happy. "You fought a battle without me?" he asked. "And Scott is a better team leader than me?"

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

"It's all over the news!" Hank exclaimed. "Oh, my stars and garters, you did wonderfully! People in Chicago are beginning to come out as being pro-mutant, and Worthington Pharmaceuticals is shutting down their mutant curative project!"

"That's probably because we took their top scientist," Jean said, leading Dr. Rao down the ramp. "Hank, meet Dr. Kavita Rao, former scientist for WorthPharm. Dr. Rao, this is Hank McCoy. He loves science. Especially biology and chemistry."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. McCoy," Dr. Rao said, extending a hand to shake. "I apologize for my appearance at the moment, but it cannot be helped."

"That's not a problem," Professor Xavier said, wheeling his chair across the hangar floor towards where everyone was gathered. "We'll do our best to help you adjust to your new form, and perhaps even reverse it. In the mean time, I hope you'll help us in our endeavors." He turned to the X-Men without waiting for a reply. "My X-Men, you all did very well, but in the future, attempt to work more as a team, rather than a group of individuals." He smiled warmly. "However, I am certain that will come with time. I am proud of you all. Now, let's go have dinner."

"Excuse me, Professor?" said Hank.

"Yes, Henry, what is it?" the Professor asked.

"I would like to step down as coryphaeus of the X-Men," he said. "I wasn't there when I was needed, and Scott did better than I feel I could do. Besides, I feel like I'm not quite old enough for the responsibility yet."

"What's a coryphaeus?" Bobby whispered to Scott.

"No idea," he replied.

"Judging from context, I think it means leader," Jean said.

Professor Xavier furrowed his brow. "We'll talk about this tomorrow, Henry," he said. "For now, let's just enjoy tonight."

"Certainly," Hank said. "I did some of the cooking!" he announced to the groans of the X-Men. "I hope everyone likes Coq au Vin, because I think I'm excellent at preparing it, if I do say so myself."

…

And so our intrepid heroes head off to a feast worthy of the halls of Asgard! Never fear though, true believers. They'll be back eventually to take a road trip and fight some crazy villains in 'Indomitable X-Men: Weapon X'! Til then, Sayonara!


End file.
